Addicted To Processed Food? Here Are 5 Tips For Cleaning Up Your Diet

Have You Tried To “Eat Healthy” But Just Can’t Resist The Temptation of Junk Food?

If so, you are definitely not alone in this. It’s hard to let go of processed food, especially when they are designed to be addictive to the taste bud.

Read the article below and find how you can clean up your diet with these 5 steps

Hardly any of us grew up eating a clean diet free of processed foods. In fact, many of us probably eating the exact opposite: the Standard American Diet (SAD). It seems much easier to just go to the store, pick up some chips, cookies, crackers, white bread, ice cream and soda, or just zip through the drive-thru on your lunch break or when you’re too tired after work to cook. We all have different reasons for turning to convenient, less-than-stellar meal options, which essentially leads us to live off processed foods somehow or another. Sure, we hear and know they’re not the best for us, but when it comes down to convenience and tradition, it just seems easier to take the quick route out. This is especially true when you’re first starting out eating a cleaner diet or you become interested in doing so.

But we have to start making a cultural shift away from processed foods. Our country is facing more types of disease than ever before, and the processed food industry is just as booming as ever. We’ve seen great progress in the real food, whole foods movement, along with more plant-based product options out there, but we still have room to grow. Our goal here at One Green Planet isn’t to just show you how to eat more plant-based, but to also inspire you to eat in a more sustainable, whole foods way.

So, if you’re just starting out and trying to shift away from processed foods into a more whole foods diet, here are some simple tips we think will help you out. Remember, we’re all in this together. So let’s get real with our food, shall we?

1. Start Small

If you look at everything in your fridge and pantry (or a large percentage of it) and realize that most of it comes in a package and doesn’t resemble a whole food whatsoever, don’t panic and feel overwhelmed. You don’t have to do a complete raid of your kitchen (unless you’d like to, of course). Instead, start small and make changes here and there. For instance, the first week, maybe you’ll cut out boxed cereal for whole grain oatmeal or a smoothie. Or, you could make your own granola bars and could make it a goal to eat a salad, soup, or side of veggies everyday for lunch instead of something from the drive-thru. Another easy idea is to quit buying chips, cookies, and sugary snacks. Make a batch of real food cookies, opt for fresh fruit, chopped carrots and hummus with salsa, or make yourself an afternoon smoothie instead (which is a fun way to treat yourself during the workday). Pick three things you feel you can do this week and start implementing them. When you’ve got those mastered, you can pick three more things the next month.

2. Reduce and Replace

Along with starting small, another idea is to reduce an unhealthy food habit instead of trying to eliminate it completely at once (that comes later!). Replace whatever item you’re reducing with something better. For example, let’s say you’ve got a mad addiction to soda. You can just can’t help yourself and pop around 4-5 a day (or more). Whether they’re diet or regular, these are some of the worst beverages for your health and provide no nutritional benefits. The sugary ones have been linked to Type 2 diabetes and cancer, while the sugar-free and diet varieties contain artificial sweeteners linked to cancer and other scary health issues. Try reducing the amount you drink to one per day. Then, replace the sodas you would have consumed with a more natural soda made with soda water, stevia, and fruit,  or sparkling, carbonated water. Or, try iced coconut water with some lime and lemon, which is pretty delicious if you’ve never had it before. Replace your unhealthy habit with a healthy habit, and eventually, you won’t even want the one soda you do eat. You can do this with any food or drink out there and it will help prevent feeling overwhelmed from taking one item out completely all at once.

3. Familiarize Yourself With Real Food

If you don’t know what real food is, it’s hard to actually eat it, right? Remember that no one eats a perfect diet, but we should all try to eat more real foods, which are foods in their natural state that contain no additional ingredients or have went through multiple steps of processing to make it to our plates. Some of the best include: greens, vegetables, herbs, spices, fruits, beans, legumes, nuts, seeds, and whole grains. Foods made with these (such as hummus, unsweetened non-dairy milk, plain nut butters, simple condiments, and salsa) are also considered minimally processed foods and are also fine to eat on a real foods diet. But it’s hard to know this if you’re not familiar with what real food is. Many of us would have considered chips and cookies real foods years ago, but now we know differently. Focus on foods with the least amount of ingredients as possible and food in its natural state — this is the essence of eating a real foods diet.

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